Two days after the officialization of his arrival on the bench of AS Monaco, Philippe Clement was presented to the press, Wednesday January 5. And the least we can say is that the Belgian, who has signed up for two and a half years, is aware of the task that awaits him, and of the pressure that falls on this position. “I like this pressure”, he also commented.
“The pressure? I went back to Genk with Bruges, he stressed. Then we managed to be, for the first time in 130 years in the history of the club, Belgian champions twice in a row with Club Bruges! It’s pressure! I like this pressure! “, he added from the La Turbie performance center, on the heights of the Principality.
Arrived from Bruges with three assistants, Frédéric De Boever, goalkeeper coach, Jonas Ivens, physical preparation specialist, and Johan Van Rumst, who, like him, signed a contract until June 2024, Clement said he wanted to adapt to the Monegasque group.
Coach @philippe_clemnt “I always want to have a dominant team, which plays offensively, with a lot of commitment and desire” pic.twitter.com/h3ZlsRxpHg
– AS Monaco (@AS_Monaco) January 5, 2022
“You always have to adapt to the qualities of the players, he explained. But I want a dominant team, with commitment and a lot of desire. Even if sometimes the opponent is stronger and you have to be smarter. “
“Create a family”
If Clement enjoys leading a team “from one of the top five championships in the world”, he predicted “a time to adapt, to understand the men behind the players”.
But he also assured to know Monaco and Ligue 1, because he has “met Paris SG twice in the Champions League” (1-1, 1-4). And above all recognized that his “strength, the years spent with different clubs”, were the human relations with the players. “To create a family, even if the players are more individualistic than ten or twenty years ago”, he summed up.
Present alongside their new coach at a press conference, Paul Mitchell, English sporting director of Monaco, and Oleg Petrov, Russian vice-president and general manager, justified the arrival of Clement and the ousting of Niko Kovac, to whom they have paid homage, by a will “to enter a new phase” of their project.
“The results were not in line with the potential, the ambition and the objectives planned this summer, Mitchell pointed out. We analyzed the situation well and, with the main shareholder (Dmitri Rybolovlev, editor’s note), we decided to change. To continue our progress and achieve our objectives. “
The elimination in the Champions League preliminary round against Shakhtar Donetsk was a turning point. But not only.
“When the train passes …”
“We must show the greatest respect for the work of Niko (Kovac) who laid the foundations, Mitchell continued. But we kept our best players and recruited this summer. After our start to 2021, we thought we would be strong from the first game this season. However, we have never been in the Top 5 in Ligue 1. We want to be a rival to the favorite. We are 17 points away (from Paris SG, Editor’s note), that’s too much! “
Was this the perfect time to change coaches, however? “It’s never a good time”, played down Clement, who did not think “leave Bruges”. Corn “when the train passes, you have to take it”, he said.
Monaco, who travels to Nantes on Sunday, is currently 6th in L1 four points from Nice, runner-up to PSG. The Rocher club also qualified in the round of 16 of the Europa League and the Coupe de France.